ABAY Taste of Ethiopia

Haarlem finally has an Ethiopian restaurant, or at least a take out place. Abay (Amharic for Blue Nile), just opened. It’s small but in a great location right on the Gasthuisvest between the Sparne and de Grote Houtstraat.
No delivery or table service yet. You take things home and warm the food up yourself, like food from a toko. Cash only for now.
I’ve gotten take out from there twice, sampling eight standard Ethiopian dishes. The two meat dishes — kitfo, Ethiopian beef tartare, and their take on yebeg wot, a kind of lamb stew — were as good as any I’ve had. The four veggie sides I had — the kale, two lentil dishes (the spicy red ones called miser alech and the mild yellow ones called kik alicha) and their cabbage/​carrot wot were all standouts except the kale («gomen») which was a little bland for my tastes. The injera didn’t have a lot of teff in it, but it was just fine for take out and some people actually prefer it that way (they are wrong, of course…) They threw in a couple of other sides for me including some ayibe to go with the kitfo.
The food is amazingly fresh and wholesome. It should be: they serve it literally out of their kitchen. The owners are friendly and clearly know how to make some great food. I sincerely hope they do well and expand to table service and, dare I dream? delivery service.